FragPunk Is Pretty Fantastic On The Steam Deck - First Look

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I remember when I was at Gamescom last year and had a chance to check out FragPunk for the first time. I remember thinking how intriguing it was, taking the 5v5 first-person shooter and adding some crazy ways to change the round to your advantage. I was having a blast playing with the devs, and when they told me they wanted to make sure it was playable on the Steam Deck, I was overjoyed. Now that FragPunk is released, I wanted to test it out on the Deck and see if it is indeed a good time on Deck, and I can confidently say yes, yes it is, with some compromises.

Usually, I worry about first-person shooters on the Steam Deck. Of all the types of games, these tend to be the worst experience on the Deck. This is, in part, due to the games feeling best at 60 FPS, which is not easy to achieve on the more graphically intense, newer shooters. Even though the developers mentioned it would be playable, I was still a little worried. Now I see I have nothing to worry about because it runs very well!

In the few matches I played at default settings, I was able to hold 60 FPS almost the entire time, with some drops only showing up when looking at replays of how I was killed. To me, this is completely acceptable, and I was so happy I could play at a smooth frame rate with near-perfect stability. It also looked pretty decent, and I didn't notice any obnoxious blurriness or terrible-looking textures.

However, there is a trade-off. FragPunk's settings are on the lowest, so the game doesn't look as good as it should. I also felt like there were some effects missing, like rocket explosions. It might just be me, but I feel like I died from rockets, and I don't recall seeing any explosions from them. The game looks solid and is very playable; there may just be some compromises here and there. However, the trade-off is worth it since we can play a new 5v5 first-person shooter at 60 FPS on the Steam Deck.

FragPunk is available on Steam now and is completely free to play!

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